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Cover Albums — Artistic Or Lazy?
A few examples to help you decide
Do you enjoy albums entirely made up of cover songs by artists, or do you think it’s a lazy approach?
Artists make cover albums for many reasons. One is to keep the momentum between their mainstream albums of original songs. They may also not have the material, or may be having a dry spell and have to fill a contractual obligation.
Lennon’s Rock & Roll album came out of an out-of-court settlement with Morris Levy after he was sued for plagiarism on Come Together. Lennon agreed to record three covers owned by Levy’s company, although he reneged on the agreement. McCartney’s covers album CHOBA B CCCP was initially released only in the then USSR as a response to a disagreement McCartney had with his record company.
Other reasons for covers-only albums might be that the artist wants to increase their target audience by connecting with the fans of the cover songs, or they want to reconnect after a break and familiar songs catch the ear more quickly.
Paul Weller recently released a double album of covers. Like Springsteen, Weller has never been short on original material, so when asked by a journalist why release a cover album, he gave several reasons.
